Pluggable Reflection: Decoupling Meta-Interface and Implementation

Reflection remains a second-class citizen in current programming
models, where it's assumed to be imperative and tightly bo und to its
implementation. In contrast, most object-oriented APIs all ow interfaces
to vary independently of their implementations. Components take this
separation a step further by describing unforeseeable attr ibutes---the
key to pluggable third-party components. This paper describes how
reflection can benefit from a similar evolutionary path.